Future of payments showcased at MWC 2018

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) held in Barcelona, Spain attracts more than 100,000 people to the city every year, showcasing the most innovative solutions and products in the mobile industry. Briony Richter writes

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Payment highlights

Rambus

The American technology licencing company showcased its Unified Payment Platform that supports retailers in improving the shopping experience for consumers by making the in-store, check-out, and payment process hassle free. The platform digitises payment, gift, loyalty cards as well as coupons and receipts.

The company also presented its Smart Ticketing platform. The mobile ticketing solutions offer great convenience and efficiency to commuters and transport operators. Using smart cards and smartphones, consumers can store and use their tickets electronically. This makes travelling hassle-free, without having to rummage through bags for paper tickets. The traveller simply taps their smartphone or card to continue their journey seamlessly.

Smartphones represented, indeed, 77% of total handset subscriptions in 2016 in the UAE.

The solutions are there to provide a simple travel experience through account-based ticketing.

Credit: Mobile World Congress

Visa

Visa announced that it has signed 14 new technology companies, from across 10 countries.

The new technology partners join ‘Visa Ready for Transit programme’. The programme works alongside the companies whose technology solutions are accelerating seamless, friction-free commuting with contactless payments. The aim is to make a bigger push for contactless payments available for commuting across the globe.

The Visa Ready certification enables transit companies to implement a more convenient and efficient experience for commuters worldwide using convenient and secure solutions.

Smartphones represented, indeed, 77% of total handset subscriptions in 2016 in the UAE.

Jason Blackhurst, senior vice president, innovation and strategic partnerships at Visa, said: “We’re seeing renewed interest from transit-related companies around the world to learn how new innovations in payments can improve their customer experiences.

“Since launching Visa Ready for Transit, we’ve welcomed 16 world-class technology partners to the programme, ranging from small tech companies to multinational organisations. Each of these partners are empowered to help extend the benefits of Visa’s digital payment technology to transit companies around the globe.”

The 14 new partners all develop software or hardware to provide a more seamless experience for people using public transport around the world. The new partners include:

Visa Ready for Transit is part of the overall Visa Ready programme, which helps accelerate the adoption of new technologies including contactless payments in public transport. The Visa Ready for Transit programme was first announced in November 2017 with initial partners, Vix and Worldline.

Idemia

IDEMIA is a global leader in trusted identities. In a society that is continually digitising, IDEMIA aims to give consumers the ability to interact, pay, connect, travel and even vote through digitally secure channels.

The company showcased its new smart card that holds a fingerprint sensor embedded in the card, allowing end users to biometrically send and receive payments instead of entering a PIN.

Some of the other highlights from IDEMIA’s solutions are digital solutions for the connected car and a ‘Know Your Customer’ system for mobile on-boarding.

IDEMIA serves clients in 180 countries.

Smartphones represented, indeed, 77% of total handset subscriptions in 2016 in the UAE.